Textile combing machines



y 1,1959 2 J. R. FOSTER 2,895,171

I TEXTILE COMBING MACHINES Original Filed Oct. 12', 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 a 21 Q I 26' o 27 o 30 I? 21 17 19 29 19 15 1 2w I I 7 o o K I:

July 21, 1959 J. R. FOSTER 2,895,177

TEXTILE COMBING MACHINES Original Filed Oct. 12, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 y 21, 9 J. R. FOSTER 2,895,177

. TEXTILE con/name MACHINES I Original Fi led Oct. 12, 1953 I s Sheets-Sheet s United States Patent TEXTILE COMBING MACHINES John Raymond Foster, Accrington, England, assignor to T.M.M. (Research) Limited, Helmshore, Rossendale, England Original application October 12, 1953, Serial No. 385,633, now Patent No. 2,781,556, dated February 19, 1957. Divided and this application March 3, 1955, Serial No. 491,821

Claims priority, application Great Britain October 14, 1952 2 Claims. (Cl. 19--120) The invention relates to textile combing machines, this application being a division of my application Serial No. 385,633, filed October 12, 1953, now Pat. 2,781,556, Feb. 19, 1957. The said application as filed had for its object an improved constructional arrangement of a combing machine whereby increased production can be obtained without loss of quality, by operating at higher speed than had theretofore been practicable. The invention covered thereby provided improved means for mounting and operating the top comb and nipper mechanism, and also an improved constructional arrangement of the detaching and piecing mechanism, and this latter is the subject of the present application.

Machines of the type referred to herein contain forward and back pairs of detaching rollers, top and bottom rollers in each pair, and an object of the invention covered herein is so to arrange and construct the same that one, .and preferably two highly desirable results will be obtained. These are, firstly, when the fringe of the pieced web is reversed, it shall be caused to curve downwardly about the rear surface of the bottom back roller, so as to be held clear of the leading edge of the oncoming tuft held in the nippers; and secondly, the back rollers must be so arranged as to permit the nearest possible approach of the top comb and the nippers to the nip of said rollers without fouling the surface of the upper roller.

Further, the object of the invention is so to arrange the detaching rollers and coacting parts that the abovementioned results will be obtained in a simplified construction in comparison with prior combing machines, such as the well-known Heilmann and Nasmith combers, in which provision is made for oscillating or displacing the top back detaching roller forward and back in reference to the bottom back roller, periodically, with the intention of obtaining similar results to those above mentioned. In my invention herein all four rollers revolve about fixed axes, the axes of the .back rollers being situated at higher points than the axes of the corresponding front rollers, which causes the pieced web on reversal to make contact with the surface of the bottom back roller before entering the nip ofthe back rollers; and also, in my preferred construction, the axis of the upper back roller is located in advance of the vertical plane containing the axis of the bottom back roller, whereby the second of theabove-mentioned desirable results is obtained.

Attention is hereby directed to the'accompanying drawings, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a transverse section of the machine;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the parts of the machine which are intimately associated with the combing elements, as seen at the end of the cylinder combing stage, the nippers still being closed;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the comb cylinder, the nipper mechanism, the top comb, and the detaching roller assembly, shown in the position respectively occupied at the commencement of the cylinder combing stage; and

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are similar to Fig. 3, but are varied to depict the positions of the parts at three subsequent stages in the combing cycle.

Referring to the drawings, the operating members are supported by main frame, 1. 2 is the comb cylinder, 3 the stripping brush thereof and 4 the aspirator duct used to conduct away the short fibres removed by the comb cylinder 2. The shaft of the comb cylinder is indicated at 2a. 5, 6 are rollers upon which a lap 7 of material to be combed is placed so that it may rotate freely as the combing operation proceeds. 8 and 9 are respectively the top and bottom nippers and 10 is the top comb. 11, 12 and 13, 14 are respectively back and front pairs of detaching rollers, all of which are mounted for rotation about fixed axes. 15 is a plate adapted to lead the combed material through a funnel 16, whence it is delivered by the rollers 17, 18 to a longitudinal delivery plate 19.

The lower nipper 9 is carried by a frame of which the side members 20 are jointed at the rear by a shaft 21. In the space above the comb cylinder 2 is located the rocking shaft 22 upon which the top comb 10 is suspended to oscillate therewith by means of brackets 23. Each of a pair of levers 24 fixed to the shaft 22 is connected by an adjustable link 25 to an arm 26 of a bell-crank lever 26, 27 which is pivoted at 28 and the other arm 27 of which supports at its extremity the pivot shaft 21 of the upper nipper frame, the arrangement being such that the requisite oscillating action of the nipper frame is derived from the rocking movement of the shaft 22 through the members 24, 25, 26, 27 and 21. The amplitude of the nipper movement can be adjusted by regulating the effective length of the link 25.

The upper nipper 8 is carried by levers 29 loosely pivoted on the shaft 21 and each of which is connected by an extensible drag link 30 with a fixed anchorage 31. By these means the nippers are caused automatically to open when the lower nipper 9 is swung forwardly after the cylinder combing stage.

In a previous known arrangement the nipper mechanism is suspended from a rocking shaft (such as rocking shaft 22 shown herein) located above the comb cylinder, and to which the nipper frame is fixed, the top comb being carried by a fixed pivot and linked to the nipper frame so as to move synchronously therewith. In the arrangement described herein, however, the radius of the oscillating movement of the nipper assembly about the axis 28 is substantially less than would be the case if the nippers were suspended directly from the rocking shaft 22.

The reduction in length of stroke of the nippers is of particular advantage where a high machine operating speed is sought, and produces various beneficial results, among which the following are mentioned:

(1) The reduced stroke enables the velocity of movement of the nippers to be reduced correspondingly, which, among other advantages, lessens the tendency of the fringe held by the nippers to be distributed.

(2) It is not possible, in conventional combers, to reverse the detaching rollers to turn back the fringe of the previously combed material until the last row of cylinder needles has passed the detaching rollers. It is therefore desirable that the rear position of the nip- .pers (i.e. the position occupied during the cylinder combing operation) should be situated as closely as 3 period, the time saved being used to augment the period devoted to the turn-back of the detaching rollers. By this means, the velocity of the tum-back is reduced, this producing. better technological operating conditions.

(3) It is accepted that the speeds at which the detach ing: and top combing operations are performed may not be increased beyond a certain limit without deterioration in the quality of the output material. In the present invention the reduced stroke and velocity of the nippers enables the nipper head to enter the detaching zone earlier in the comber cycle than would otherwise have been the case. The period devoted to the detaching. operation is consequently increased and, although the machine itself is running at greatly increased speed, the speed of the detaching operation is not increased to the same extent. The rate of production may therefore be enhanced without loss of equality.

The constructional arrangement of the detaching rollers will now be described. These comprise a front pair 13, 14; and a rear pair, 11, 12, the axes of all of the same being fixed. It will be seen that the front pair 13, 14 are so located with respect to the back pair 11, 12 that the web A makes contact with the bottom back roller at 32 Le. forward of the nip of the rollersll, 12. The web A is maintained between the hips of the rollers 11,12 and 13, 14 until the rollers are reversed (Pig. 4). That is to say, in the present embodiment the nip of the rollers 13, 14 is located at a lower level than that of the rollers 11, 12 so that the web-A is inclined from the point at which it leaves the nip of the rollers 13, 14, the surface of the roller 12 lying in the path of the Webat a point displaced from the nip of the rollers 11, 12 towards the rollers 13, 14. This arrangement has the effect of inducing in the web A a tendency, when fed backward through the nip of the rollers 11, 12, to curve'downwardly about the rear surface of the roller 12, and to take up the position shown at A in Fig. 5.

Fig. 3 shows the relative positions of the parts as the needles 33 of the comb cylinder 2 commence to comb the new 'tuft' of uncombed material B, which is held between the nippers 8, 9. The combed web A has still to proceed a short distance further through the detaching rollers before its motion is reversed preparatory to piecing. When the parts reach the positions shown in Fig. 4, the cylinder combing stage is almost complete and the nipper assembly and top comb have commenced their forward movement towards their piecing positions. After the comb cylinder needles 33 have passed the new tuft B towards the position shown in Fig. 5, during which movement they may brush down the fringe A of the combed web A, the nippers 8, 9 open, allowing the new tuft to be fed forwards into contact with the web A, and as the fringe A and the leading edge of the new tuft B are grasped by the rollers 11, 12, the top comb Ill is brought to position to perform the final combing operation on the remainder of the new tuft B. The parts have now reached the position shown in Fig. 6.

It will be observed that the lower position of rollers 13, 14 with reference to rollers 11, 12, ensures that the tuft, A, upon completing its forward movement prior to reversal, as shown in Fig. 4, clings to and curves about a segment of thefluted roller, 12, extending from a point indicated roughly at 32 to the nip of rollers 11, 12. It has been found" that, because of this, tuft A will continue to follow the curvature of roller 12, after passing through the nip of rollers 11, 12., upon reversal, to a much greater extent than would be the case if the nip of rollers 13, 14 were on the same level as the nip of rollers 11, 12, as is shown in Fig. at A In order that the presence of the upper back roller 11 will not hinder the nipper assembly and top comb from moving as closely as possible to the nip of the back rollers 11, 12 during the piecing operation, and in order that the necessity for any transitory movement of the back rollers may be avoided, the axis of the roller 11 is located somewhat in advance of the vertical plane containing the axis of the roller 12, asis indicated in comb and the nippers, and the rate of feed of material,

to be adjusted to suit a variety of materials of diiferent types, different staple lengths and of other variable characteristics.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: p

1. In a textile combing machine including a comb cylinder and a top comb, in combination, a nipper assembly, a detaching mechanism, the nipper assembly being arranged to supply a web of material to said detaching mechanism, said detaching mechanism comprising front and back spaced roller pairs, each consisting of an upper roller and a lower roller, all four of the rollers being reversably rotatable about fixed axes, said comb cylinder and said top comb cooperating to comb respectively the leading edge of said supply web and the trailing edge of the web held by the detaching mechanism, said nipper and said detaching mechanism being cooperative to cause the com'b'ed leading edge of the supply web to be pieced onto the trailing edge of the combed web held by the detaching mechanism before reaching the nip of the back roller pair, the axis of said back rollers being situated at higher points than the axes of the corresponding front rollers, to cause the pieced -web when fed toward the nipper to travel substantially tangential to the surface of the bottom back roller when at a point displaced from the nip of the back roller toward the front rollers.

2. In atextile combing machine including a comb cylinder and a top comb, in combination, a nipper assembly, a detaching mechanism, said nipper assembly being arranged to supply web to said detaching mechanism, the latter comprising front and back spaced roller pairs each consisting of an upper roller and a lower roller, all four of the rollers being reversably rotatable about fixed axes, and means including said comb cylinder and said top comb cooperating to comb respectively the leading edge of said supply web and the trailing edge of the web held by the detaching mechanism, said nipper and said detaching mechanism being cooperative to cause the combed leading edge of the supply web to be pieced onto the trailing edge of the combed webheld by the detaching mechanism before reaching the nip of the back roller pair, the axes of said back rollers being situated at higher points than the axes of the corresponding front' rollers, and the axis of the upper back roller being located in'advance of the vertical plane containing the axis of the bottom back roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,401,179 Nasmith Dec. 27, 1921 1,534,783" Horridge Apr. 21, 1925 2,097,824 Schmitt Nov. 2, 1937 FOREIGN PATENTS 9,346 Great Britain of 1910 

